


A nightmare undreamt

by saya4haji



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: BAMF Alex Danvers, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-04 00:47:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21188753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saya4haji/pseuds/saya4haji
Summary: They say the only escape from a nightmare is waking up, but if life is your nightmare then there is no escape. Right?Wrong. At least if you're Alex Danvers, because then the nightmare, and all those who help make it, better start running. Not to escape, but just to make it sporting.





	1. Through time

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure what this is or where its going but the scene came to me and had to be written. Will update as other scenes appear in my head.

“Director Danvers, I have calculated the chances of success at less than 6%,” Brainy whispered. His usually strong, monotone voice quaked with restrained pain. His hands absently stroked the complicated halo of wires and alien crystals in his hands.

Alex swept her hair from her face in a tired gesture and offered Brainy a weak, self-deprecating smile.

“I know Brainy. It’s my plan, but that 6% represent my…our only hope of fixing all of this.” Alex’s hand waved vaguely at the destroyed remains of the DEO and the wasteland viewable beyond the windows.

J’onn’s limping steps crushed through the scattered glass on the floor and he heavily dropped into the stool beside the reclining bed that Alex rested on.

“For M’gann,” J’onn weakly intoned.

Brainy’s grip tightened on the halo, “For Nia.”

Alex sighed deeply as she dropped back on the bed, her hand twisting into J’onn’s in a reassuring squeeze, “For Kara.”

Alex nodded to each man in turn and at her wordless command they set their plan in motion.

Alex lifted the hated Obsidian contact lenses and with practiced ease placed them in her eyes.

J’onn leaned forward and rested his hands on Alex’s temple, “I will try to stabilize your mind for as long as I can and take your pain as my own, but this will still be agony Alex. You must never loose focus on the goal or all this will be for naught.”

Alex’s jaw tightened, “Agony I can handle J’onn. I’ll get there. I won’t fail again.”

J’onn’s gaze softened at his daughters pain but he knew there were no words that would lift her burden, only aiding her in this suicidal last chance at salvation would possibly do that.

He dropped a single kiss on her forehead and whispered words he wished he had said more often, “I love you Alex.”

Alex’s eyes welled up around the Obsidian lenses, hearing the unspoken words in the stoic Martian’s voice. She gripped his hand harder, swallowed the tears and gushing words of love she knew she didn’t have the strength to utter.

Brainy stepped forward and placed the Halo on her head, “Initiating the combination tachyon and Q wave generation in 3, 2, 1…Goodbye Alex.”

Alex felt J’onn’s presence shielding her mind in a warm embrace, before hit shattered and agony enveloped her.

Alex screamed.

Her throat tore open and her mind caught fire as it was catapulted through time. Even with J’onn’s help it was agony. Alex sees everything that has been, everything that could have been, glimpses of what may be. Her mind is molten metal and through it all she focuses on one date, one time, one place in all of time and space that might allow her to remake what was.

It lasted millennia, it lasted seconds. It happened and it didn’t.

Alex came awake in her bed screaming, her mind that was and her mind that is burning together. Not a gentle union, but a forced, white hot welding of consciousnesses. Synapses unraveling and rewiring.

Alex convulsed on her bed, thrashing violently until she toppled from the bed only to vomit violently.

Sweat poured down Alex’s body as she forced her body to obey, she staggered drunkenly back to her feet, the dark room illuminated as she crashed clumsily into a lamp as she tried to turn it on.

She stumbled and gasped for air, the rancid taste of vomit and pizza in her mouth, Alex fought through the blistering agony of her head and the spots in her vision to clumsily pull back the curtains and gaze out at a beautiful city. Lights twinkled in the night skyline. Catco stood tall in the distance, the hum of the city greeted her alive and well.

Then there was a dull thump on her balcony.

“Alex…Alex are you okay? I heard you scream,” the voice of an angel floated to Alex’s ears.

Alex swiveled around drunkenly to see Kara in all of her Supergirl glory, stood not six feet from her.

Kara glanced at the wrecked apartment, seeing the stumbling mess Alex had created from her bedroom to the balcony and then her face blanched and her nose wrinkled at the smell of fresh vomit.

Alex didn’t care. She lost the last of her control and threw herself at Kara, breaking down into hysterical cries. Shocked and caught off guard Kara just about caught her sister but staggered back under the sudden dead weight in her arms.

Kara’s horror and concern skyrocketed as Alex sobbed and gasped for air, her grip on Kara violent in its need.

Kara dropped to the cold concrete and cradled Alex in her arms. “Alex! Alex! What happened? Alex?” Kara asked almost hysterically.

Alex was the calm one, the one with a plan and controlled even in an emergency. Kara is cast adrift and fearful seeing her sister so distraught.

Between gasps for air and clenching fingers that would bruise a human in their strength Alex whispered, “A nightmare, just like a nightmare” over and over.

Kara tightened her grip on her sister and cast a cautious gaze around as though looking for something to protect her sister from.

Deep inside her broken mind Alex observed that they had succeeded. That means the future was just a nightmare, a nightmare she intended to kill…a nightmare that will exist only in Alex’s mind, and whose instigators will only live long enough to learn to fear Alex Danvers.


	2. Trust & preparation through time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex plans.

It had taken Alex almost an hour of platitudes, emotional blackmail and eventually some light-hearted threats to get Kara to leave her apartment this morning. It was only thanks to Andrea Rojas being less forgiving of her sister’s spotty attendance at work that finally convinced Kara to leave Alex and go to CatCo.

Alex had cried herself into a fitful sleep last night and at some point Kara had carried her back to bed before cleaning up her apartment. Alex blushed in mortification at the thought of Kara taking care of her and cleaning up her sick. Alex had returned here to protect her sister, to save the world and once again she was already failing, and Kara was saving her.

Kara had been sceptical at Alex’s poor excuse of a terrible nightmare causing her hysterical fit. A scepticism made worse by the fact that Alex had indirectly hurt Kara by point blank refusing to “discuss” said nightmare, despite Alex having cajoled and manipulated Kara to discuss her own nightmares since the loss of Krypton when they were teenagers. Kara can’t understand why Alex is refusing to let her be there for her as Alex has been on so many occasions in the past.

Alex felt terribly guilty about lying to Kara, but ultimately, she had to protect Kara from the truth of what was to come, and the cold hard truth of the evil that was necessary to prevent it. Kara would never accept short term evil for long term salvation. It just wasn’t in her to save the many by sacrificing the few. That was why she had Alex though. To save the world…hell, just to save Kara, Alex would damn her soul to hell with a smile on her face.

Alex’s head was still dully aching from the chronal backlash and merging of her future and past consciousnesses. As she glanced around her apartment her vision was overlapped with echoing memories of what it would look like in 12 months, a destroyed shell devoid of any of the warmth it currently holds.

Alex sighed deeply and chugged the last of the coffee Kara had brewed for her, swallowing a fist full of painkillers but abstaining from the alcohol that whispered to her from the cupboard like an alluring siren.

There were things to be done, a nightmare to be stopped.

At the DEO, Director Danvers had locked herself in the lab for the last 12 hours, demanding solitude and a laundry list of supplies.

Brainy alone had been able to decipher at least some of what Alex was building from the extensive list of materials the Director had requisitioned, but when he had confronted the director it had not gone how he expected.

“Director Danvers, why are you attempting to build, what I can only surmise is a telepathic blocking implant, some form of paralytic agent and a combination of explosives?”

Instead of snapping at him, as Brainy had expected, Alex had merely smiled indulgently and with something approximating pride.

“You told me, that you would work it out,” Alex ruminated in a barely audible mumble before laughing slightly and abandoning the syringe injector she was working with to approach Brainy.

Alex reached out suddenly and, in a gesture completely uncharacterised of the professional director persona, she gently cupped Brainy’s cheek.

Brainy stood frozen and his body stiffened at the unexpectedly gentle gesture. Possibilities and potential scenarios where the Director had been replaced by a shapeshifter or compromised through pharmaceutical means raced through his mind.

“You are one of my truest friends _Querl Dox. Now I have a favour to ask of you,” Director Danvers whispered almost intimately._

_Brainy’s thoughts came to a screeching halt at the sound of his earth name, so rarely used here and the genuine emotion in the directors voice, so at odds with her usual interactions with him. Yet, he had seen this softer side of the Director before, it completely correlated with the few times he had witnessed the Director “mothering” Supergirl._

_Often Brainy had considered and ruminated on the Director as his friend, yet never has she reciprocated so plainly. _

_“If I may be of assistance I will endeavour to do so,” Brainy replied uncertainly and truly perplexed._

_Alex withdrew her gentle touch and smiled again before asking, “Can you think of the one thing that I could say to you that would make you trust me implicitly. One phrase or word that you would give someone to ensure you would always have their back.” _

_Brainy’s brows furrowed and even as he considered the strangeness of the request and the almost miniscule scenarios in which such a thing would be necessary, one term of trust and safety blazed through his mind. _

_Alex never gave Brainy time to reply, instead launching into a seemingly nonsensical stream of binary, “01110001 01110101 01100101 01110010 01101111 01101100 00100000 01100100 01101111 01111000 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101110.”_

_Brainy’s usually placid face flew open in shock, “How, that’s..but…it’s the…”_

_“Closest approximation of what the analogous version of a mother on Colu used to call you,” Alex said with a hint of smug satisfaction and the distinct mockery of Brainy’s own voice. _

_Brainy’s 12th level intellect whirred with possibilities, with the ramifications of what this statement could mean, of the possibilities of how Alex could have learned something so personal to him. _

_For lack of a better option and to buy time Brainy gestured at Alex’s workspace and repeated his earlier question._

_“Why do you need all of this Director Danvers? What is it for?”_

_Alex stepped back and her hand ghosted across the myriad of components on her lab surface, the beginnings of the defences and weapons she would use to kill a nightmare before it is born. _

_“It’s to save the world. To save J’onn, M’gann, Kara…Nia,” Alex whispered in despair, her eyes welled with unshed tears and sparked with a violent determination as she met Brainy’s calculating gaze._

_Brainy flinched at the sound of Nia’s name and for a moment Alex thought his holo- emitter fluctuated, as though his mind is drawing excess power to make sense of all the data his mind is flooded with._

_The air between them grew tense as neither blinked, until finally after a minute of silence Brainy slowly closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath, his decision made._

_“I await your orders Director Danvers.” _

_For the first time, in a long time Alex felt hope. Together, even the gods of old, _Phobetor and Somnus, cannot stop them. A nightmare will be undreamt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments, Kudos, Critique?


	3. Explosion? What explosion?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex begins ensuring her nightmare will never come to pass, with extreme prejudice.

Alex’s muscles cramped as she lay prone on the dirty rooftop. Her back ached and a sharp stiffness from the cold concrete had invaded her muscles, yet she didn’t twitch, not a muscle. For the last 11 hours she had waited in her makeshift snipers’ nest for her prey to arrive. The butt of her hand built, modified rifle rested at her shoulder, her cold cheek pressed tight to its reassuring weight.

Alex’s mind had run through two focusing stories to keep her mind active and concentrated. She had imagined herself waiting to meet her prey, discussing her issues with him and even winning him to their side. She knew that was impossible, but the story kept her mind focused while she lay inert. Every hour she would stop, let out a controlled breath, evaluate the environment she was in, smell the dusty air and bring her meditative mindset back to centre. Her heart rate was at an all time low: barely 50 beats a minute. Combined with the distance from the building she was surveying and her new psychic blocking implant, well, no-one would know she was here.

Alex knew her prey would come to this building, its where he had been hiding out before he accosted J’onn. They had discovered that too late, and long after Kelly was dead. This time however, Alex planned to make sure Ma'alefa'ak died before J’onn ever learned again of his existence.

The warehouse door opened, and a beautiful little girl walked out with a confidence unnatural for her age and height. Her white dress and blonde pigtails made her look even younger than her perceived years.

The little girl’s chest was in Alex’s sights through her digital scope and the infrared sensor showed her body temperature was 5⁰C above human normal. A positive ID.

She felt her body naturally exhale, pause between breaths and at that sweet spot between heartbeats she squeezed the trigger. A soft whisper and the almost imperceptible recoil of the 3D printed custom rifle was the only indignation that the modified dart had been fired.

The shot sped true and the silver dart landed square in the child’s chest. She faltered a step, her eyes narrowing in confusion at the dart which had seemingly sprouted from her chest. Before she could react much more her face contorted in anguish and her hands spasmed towards her chest. It was too late.

One moment the little girl existed and the next a raging fireball exploded, birthed into life in her place. The fire burned white hot, smoked and then glowed vicious orange before seeming to come to life in a hissing smoking fireball.

The expulsion of such energy created an explosive shockwave that tore the warehouse behind where she had been apart, and the displaced air raced backward scouring the buildings around her like a sandblaster. Alex had ducked her head the moment the dart had hit home, but she felt the building beneath her shudder and the air race across her.

Alex glanced up at the giant crater that was all that was left of where Ma'alefa'ak had been and the raging inferno all around.

Alex pulled out her earplugs that had protected her form the boom of the explosion, clicked her mic and whispered to Brainy, “Target is neutralised. Intercept any radio chatter and delay all emergency services for 30 minutes.”

Brainy’s crackling voice sounded back, “Diversion protocols engaged, radiation drone scrubbers prepped and ready to launch once the 22-minute half-life has elapsed. Full DEO containment unit on route and ‘Myth’ protocols have been engaged.”

Alex nodded and hunkered down to wait.

Brainy didn’t know who she had killed only that it was necessary to protect Nia, to protect the world. He had been rightfully horrified when she asked for his help in producing a dart that would emit a phase nullification field while also delivering the minute dosage of Francium that had caused the destruction before her.

Brainy had bandied about words like ‘war crime,’ ‘inhumane,’ and ‘weapon of mass destruction’ when she had revealed what she was producing. At any one time there was less than 30grams of Francium in the world, the most volatile element on earth. It was so dangerous and unstable that no government or scientist on earth experimented with it regularly, and its production cost for artificial samples was astronomic. Having Brainy’s 12th level intellect and future scientific knowledge had simplified the process immensely however. In short order they created the minuscule amount of Francium necessary for the destruction that lays before her. 

Alex had learned her lessons well from the future. The Martian blaster was unreliable. She would have only one shot at killing Ma'alefa'ak, a shot that she intended to make count. There was no kill like overkill as far as she was concerned.

In a detached manner Alex ruminated on the beauty of the explosion and how she was possibly the only person alive to ever see Francium react with water…the water inside a sentient being’s body perhaps, but water none the less. It was beautiful in a strictly terrifying sort of way.

‘Myth’ protocol was designed for the DEO to carry out world saving actions with no oversight, record or limitations. It was conceived after Myriad but never used. Alex had employed it here today. She alone knew what had happened here and with her psychic nullification implant, it was a secret she was taking to the grave.

The DEO would clean up, but no record would be kept and no one else, not even Brainy knew who the target had been, only that they were classified as a global threat.

Alex pulled back from the roof top’s ledge, stretched her stiff muscles and withdrew the storage jar from her kit bag. It took her less than sixty seconds to break down her custom rifle into pieces that could be inserted into the clear liquid in the jar. After another 60 second and a delicate shake with the lid securely sealed, the weapon was no more, dissolved into the acid, leaving behind what looked like a jar of milk. Alex would later empty the contents down the DEO’s chemical drain, and so all evidence of Ma'alefa'ak and his assassination were destroyed.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief. The first step was taken, a critical blow and element to the creation of her nightmare future was destroyed. Alex wasn’t content though. It was not enough. She would destroy every possible avenue of that future and every person involved. Only then would she rest easy. Only then would she know her nightmare was dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Review? Critique?


	4. Cursed apple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you're a Lena fan, turn back now. Alex will do whatever is necessary to protect Kara.

Lena cursed as she threw her handbag across her designer couch and stared out across her million-dollar view. Reaching across the coffee table to an exquisite Belleek fruit bowl with stylised knives pleated into the rim she lifted an apple and began slicing herself wedges. The apple was sweet, but Lena barely registered the glorious taste as she focused on assuaging her protesting stomach so she could refocus on her work.

“Hope, bring up the report again,” Lena demanded of the whirling metal swarm on her desk.

“Yes Miss Luthor,” the A.I’s voice rang out across the penthouse speakers.

The blinds closed blocking off Lena’s view and the surface of her designer coffee table flickered to life revealing itself to be an interactive computer surface.

The image of a burnt-out car, that Lena had spent the last number of hours at L-Corp examining, expanded on the screen. Alongside it, a coroners reports, a local police report and a full HR report of one Miss Eve Teschmacher.

Lena was furious and exasperated. After months and countless resources, she had finally tracked Eve down, but it was only to a pauper’s grave under an assumed name. Eve had supposedly been killed after her Tesla car’s Lithium battery exploded, the doors malfunctioned without a power source locking her into the car and causing her to suffocate to death from the burning batteries fumes before being burned to a crisp by the resulting fire.

Lena had smelt a rat and paid an exorbitant amount of money to have her body exhumed and tested. A technical fault just happening to kill the woman Lena wanted to track down and use as her guinea-pig for Hope’s cybernetic augmentation. It was too convenient. Besides, it wasn’t out of the realms of possibility for Eve, Queen of deception and lovesick fool of her brother, to fake her own death.

Alas, as far as Lena can find, according to Tesla’s own internal reports, which she had accessed by some highly illegal hacking and corporate espionage, the battery malfunction was exactly what it looked like. A terrible accident. On top of that, every test that Lena had run had proven conclusive: dental, DNA, facial reconstruction…they all agreed that the corpse was Eve.

Lena’s mind whirled, could her brother have left standing orders to kill Eve? Or her mother?

Lena sighed, ate another slice of apple before throwing it and the knife lazily across the table and lay back on her uncomfortable, but expensive sofa. Her hand rubbing her tired eyes as she chewed listlessly. It was 2am and she really needed to get some sleep.

Lena had lunch planned with Kara tomorrow. The traitor.

Lena had to continue playing the part of a friend, and now that she has Kara trusting her supposed forgiveness it opened so many doors to possible revenge. Kara broke her trust, betrayed her. Turn about was only fair play. That was a longer-term goal however, but for now she would have to see about procuring a different human test subject to amalgamate Hope with, and then progress with her Q wave experimentation.

For thoroughness, Lena decided to re-run all of her tests again, “Hope, have all the tests from the Teschmacher report re-run and see if you can find a way for me to get into Tesla’s labs to examine the car she died in.”

“Yes Miss Luthor, ordering all tests to be re-run and beginning investigations into Tesla’s security and deep backgrounds into lab personnel for weaknesses that may be exploited.”

Lena smiled and dragged her tired body to her drink’s cabinet, pouring a large scotch and sipping from the heavy crystal glass.

“Thank you Hope,” Lena replied.

Instead of the quick and polite response she was expecting however, there was the reverberation of static before a sound of cascading marbles drew Lena’s attention to the counter where Hope’s interface lay.

The Hope interface was dead. The light extinguished and the whirling dynamic metal of the swarm interface lay scattered across her counter and floor.

Lena set her glass down and hurried towards the counter.

“Hope? Hope can you hear me?” Lena called out frantically.

Lena leaned against the counter and began examining the fallen pieces of Hope’s metallic swarm.

Lena’s eyebrows scrunched together in thought but any conclusions she may have drawn were quickly lost when her legs gave out beneath her.

“Ugh,” Lena grunted in shock, her arms straining to hold herself up onto the counter as her legs folded beneath her.

Lena’s jaw worked but no sound came out and suddenly her arms seemed to lose power too.

With a loud thump Lena tumbled backwards across her cold marble floor.

Lena’s eyes were blown wide as her mind raced to try and fathom what was going on.

Her limbs weren’t responding, in fact, she can’t feel them at all. The Scotch! Fuck! Someone had drugged her! But how? Here in her penthouse she was meant to be safe!

Drunkenly and with desperately clumsy movements Lena manages to wrest her heavy left arm from beneath herself, dragging it across her legs in a clumsy but deliberate fashion.

Lena can see the Supergirl beacon watch on her wrist. If she can just get it to open…

The watch’s clasp catches on her expensive dress and with the last of the feeling in her arms Lena manages to pull it open. Never has she been so glad to see the super S glowing on her wrist.

Kara will be here soon. She will save Lena. The irony is not lost on Lena, but any port in a storm as they say.

Lena suddenly hears heavy footsteps coming down her corridor. So, her attacker is still here. Lena feels sick at the thought of the intruder being in her sanctum, her home as she worked, totally clueless.

From her view on the floor Lena can see tactical boots come into view. Their smaller than she expected.

With a grunt her attacker wrestles Lena’s inert form across the floor and props her up against the counter.

It is at this angle that Lena finally sees the intruder is Alex Danvers, kitted out in black tactical gear with a small backpack across her shoulder.

Alex smiles weakly at Lena.

“Hello Lena,” Alex says in a voice much too calm for the situation.

Lena’s mouth tries to work but only drool comes out, her motor control fully gone.

Alex frowns and reaching into her pocket she pulls out a tissue to wipe Lena’s mouth with utmost gentleness.

Lena is so confused, and fear creeps up her spine. At first, she had felt relived at seeing Alex, she was DEO, a friend, maybe the watch had called her…but she is too calm and all alone. Lena’s heart sinks again as she realizes she is being betrayed by a second friend, another Danvers sister to boot.

What could Alex want? To threaten her to keep Kara’s secret? To steal her tech? Had she been the one to deactivate Hope?

Alex pats Lena’s arm and puts the tissue away.

“Better not to try and speak, you’ll just make a mess. The paralytic I gave you inhibits pretty much all conscious motor functions,” Alex says conversationally.

Lena groans trying to make words tumble past her frozen lips.

Alex smiles again, that same sad smile.

“I suppose you want to know why I have doe this hmmm?” Alex asks with a wistful, almost regretful tone.

Lena’s eyes, one of the few things she can control bounce up and down in her sockets, nodding agreement. The anger inside burning like molten lava.

Alex sighs. “First things first then, I have to take this,” Alex points to the blinking Supergirl watch, “and pop it back into your room. Can’t have anyone wondering why you didn’t use it.”

Alex lifts Lena’s arm and while focused on removing it she begins talking as though they were at game night, “You really don’t know how rare it is for Kara to give these things out. What a sign of trust and love it is. I have one, James has one that Clark gave him, and Winn used to have one too. Not even Maggie got her own one, you know? You were in elite company.” Alex smiles mournfully at her declaration. The use of past tense not lost on Lena.

Alex take the watch and snaps it closed. She stares at it for a moment and gives another resigned sigh. “I’m afraid my sister won’t be coming. One of the do-dads in my bag of tricks is a sonic dampening field, it nullifies high frequency sounds like the one the watch gives off. I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

Alex pops to her feet and wanders down the hall. Lena strains her ears and can hear doors opening and closing in what she assumes is her bedroom.

Alex returns quickly on light feet, “You have an impressive watch collection Lena. I hope you don’t mind; I stuck the Supergirl Watch between the gold Cartier and the clunky blue Rolex.”

Lena groans again futilely trying to speak, to blister Alex with her questions and her hate.

Alex crouches down by Lena.

“I can understand your anger, especially after what you will likely see as a second betrayal by a Danvers, but I assure you Lena, its all for the greater good. Making the world a better place. You were always so earnest about wanting that. I hope that thought is some comfort at least.”

Alex pops back to her feet and proceeds to the drink’s cabinet, slinging her backpack forward and producing a plastic bag holding two identical scotch glasses. In short order Alex replaces Lena’s used glass and the spare with her replacements.

“I had to brush the paralytic inside both of the glasses. I wasn’t sure which one you would use. I remember you saying you enjoyed a glass of scotch after a long day’s work. I am glad you had the drink, it made things a lot simpler. My backup plan was waiting until you fell asleep and dripping a little of the paralytic into your mouth. A lot more tedious and riskier, what with you being an admitted insomniac,” Alex explained.

Lena wanted to kick herself. All the details Alex had used to target her, to plan this were things Lena had told her because she thought she was a friend.

Impotent tears built in Lena’s eyes and the rage burned hotter.

Alex gave Lena a pitying look before crossing the room to begin gathering up the Hope swarm pieces from the counter and the floor. Alex efficiently tidied them away into her bag and then plugged a cable from her DEO wrist computer into Hope’s interface unit which glowed back to life.

Lena groaned again. The bitch was stealing her tech.

Alex smiled reassuringly down at Lena and as though reading her mind, “I’m not stealing your tech. I’m erasing Hope.”

Lena’s eyes bugged out, growing wide at Alex’s knowledge of Hope. No-one knows about Hope…how the hell did Alex know? Was the DEO and Kara surveilling her? Was L-Corp so badly compromised? What the hell did she mean she was erasing Hope? That was almost a year’s worth of work and millions in proprietary L-Corp tech. The firewalls alone would take a quantum computer days to get around.

Alex smiled wider if possible, at Lena’s shock, “Don’t feel bad Lena, your security is impeccable. I wouldn’t have known about Hope in the ordinary course of things until it was too late, except this time I cheated.”

Lena was even more confused by Alex’s supposed explanation.

“I had Brainy infiltrate L-Corp and deactivate Hope. We are doing a co-ordinated wipe at the moment. Your security is good but against a 12th level intellect, Coluan genius from the 31st century and my own future knowledge…well you didn’t stand a chance. Combined with the fact I originally spent a year developing the program in the future to wipe your servers of Eve and Q wave tech across all L-Corp sites and off site backups, with a self-replicating and sustaining virus…you were beat before you even started.”

If possible, Lena was even more shocked. The future? Had Alex lost her mind? Why would she spend a year in the future wiping out Hope? Lena’s stomach dropped as she began to correlate possible futures. Her plan must have worked, or maybe worked too well and Alex has somehow returned through time to stop her. The idea makes Lena’s blood run cold.

Hope’s yellow interface glow turned red and then slowly dimmed.

Alex sighed before unplugging the Hope interface base unit and disappearing that too into her backpack.

Alex crouched down, and like lifting a bag of potatoes, she hefted Lena’s dead weight in a fireman’s lift. With steady steps exhibiting her DEO trained strength, Alex carried Lena to her sofa and deposited her there as gently as possible.

Alex’s eyes narrowed on the open files on the coffee table interface that showed Eve Teschmacher’s report.

Alex’s brows furrowed before she tossed her thumb back at the display and asked Lena in a falsely jaunty tone, “Admiring my work, are you? Glad to see it stood up to Luthor levels of interrogation. If you couldn’t find my tampering with the battery and the electronics, then I guess I don’t have to worry eh?”

Lena’s blood ran cold. Alex just admitted cold blooded murder. Well-planned, cold-blooded murder! Despite her fear Lena had subconsciously not been worried for her life, Alex was a friend, and one of the good guys…she wouldn’t really hurt Lena, would she?

Lena could feel her heartbeat and breathing accelerate.

“Finally beginning to work out the end game, are we?” Alex asked, her voice low and hollow. Her jaunty manner from a moment ago lost and a heavy grief seemingly materialising across her brows.

“I always liked you Lena, and Kara loved you to the end, that’s why I risked all of this so I could tell you why it has to happen before I kill you. I figure I at least owe you that.”

Sweat beads at Lena’s hairline and her breathing is laboured. Inside her mind she screams and panics, desperately trying to command her limbs to move.

Alex sits on the coffee table, hands clasped between her legs and unshed tears in her eyes. Damn her for pretending to care Lena curses in her mind.

“In less than six months the world’s population is cut to less than a million people,” Alex declares into the silence. A fact. Her tone dead as though repeating something that has been general knowledge for a lifetime.

Lena’s breath stutters.

“You built Hope and your Q wave mind reprogramming tech in the belief that you can stop humanity from being greedy, lying, selfish bastards. You succeed, but you also forget that we aren’t the only species in the galaxy. With you and Hope neutering humanities more vicious thought patterns we become meek lambs for the slaughter. The details are unimportant, all that mattered was that once the white Martians were done and the Crisis had happened, most of the world was dead. J’onn was crippled, Kara was dead, M’gann was dead, Nia was dead, James, Kelly…too many to name. Hell, in the end even you died. You’ll be glad to know it was in heroic fashion as you tried to undo your stupidity, your petty vengeance against Kara.”

Lena wants to shake her head. Its impossible. She could never cause such destruction. Never. The Q waves, Hope, all her plans were to save humanity…she was good damn it.

Alex sighs deeply again, “In the dying days of the world, Brainy and I managed to use your research into Q waves, Andrea Rojas Obsidian tech, a boat load of tachyons, some stolen ideas from our friend the Flash and Martian mind projection to send my mind back over 12 months into this body. Now that hurt like a bitch.” Alex laughs humourlessly.

Lena’s mind was whirling. She killed Kara? She killed the world? She wanted to make it a better place, she wanted vengeance, but not this, not this nightmare.

Alex reaches out and places her hand on Lena’s inert thigh in a friendly gesture of reassurance. “It’s okay though. I have already started changing the present to make sure that future doesn’t occur, but Lena?” Alex looks deeply into her eyes, “I have to be sure that nothing like that will ever come to pass again. You are so desperate to not be your brother, to do good, yet you inevitably believe that you know best. That when anyone questions you, that they are wrong. Your ego, your condescension…your good intensions keep leading to hell.”

Lena tries to swallow the lump in her throat. This can’t be. It can’t be. Lena feels her left-hand twitch but immediately stills the movement. The paralytic is wearing off.

Alex squeezes Lena’s thigh, “I bet I know what your thinking? That now that you know what happens you won’t make the same mistakes. That you and Kara will make up and you will do better hmm?”

Lena wants to nod, wants to scream that she won’t be like her brother.

Alex withdraws and leans back, idly picking up the apple Lena had been eating and cutting off a slice. Lena watches that knife with growing horror. She had faced death before but never been so powerless.

“My sister would tell me to give you another chance. That you are a good person, but she doesn’t realize that while you offer her a hand of forgiveness and friendship, that you have been planning her humiliation and to betray her in the most intimate ways possible. I can’t risk that.”

Lena’s eyes burned with tears. She wanted to shout denials, but she couldn’t. Even with a second chance could she let go of her hurt and betrayal? Would she be able to let go of her vendetta’s against Kara and now Alex too? She is a Luthor, she may think she can but at her heart she knows the thought of revenge, of retribution, even in a petty way would fester.

Alex’s watch bleeped and she silenced it with an efficient gesture. “The paralytic will be wearing off about now,” Alex observed, scrutinising Lena’s form.

Lena held herself still, trying not to betray the dull feeling she can sense creeping back into her fingers and toes.

Alex sighs, “In another life we could have been great allies Lena. Maybe even more, but after the Alien detection device, the kryptonite, the Harun-El serum and now Hope with her mind control applications…I can’t risk what you might do next.”

Alex replaced the knife on the table beside the half-eaten apple, examining the thick wedge she had sliced off for herself.

Lena’s heart rate didn’t know whether to race or to slow. Alex sounded so final, yet she had set the knife aside.

Alex twirled the apple slice, “An ignominious way to go for a Luthor, but an accident will be easier for Kara to deal with. She is used to the capricious nature of the universe after all. She will mourn you, but she will heal.”

Lena could feel her sluggish brows trying to lower in confusion at Alex’s ruminations but then quick as lightning Alex was across the space between them.

Alex straddled Lena and forced the apple wedge down her throat, no not her throat, her trachea!

Alex roughly massaged her throat and held her jaw opened as she pushed the apple slice deep into Lena’s airway.

Lean gasped and tears came to her eyes. Her numb arms that she had just been regaining feeling in rise to try fruitlessly and push Alex back.

Alex jumped back and sat on the coffee table. Tears streamed down her face, but she did not break eye contact as Lena began turning red and then blue. With every second that passed Lena could feel more feeling return to her hands and legs, she clumsily tried to claw at her throat, to cough up the apple but to no avail.

Lena lurched forward but her numb legs could not yet support her, and she collapsed on the floor between the sofa and the table at Alex’s feet. Alex stood and shuffled back. Lena convulsed like a dying fish, her face going from blue to a pale grey, the vessels in her eyes bursting as she struggled for breath. Veins stand proud across Lena’s pale skin, across her face and throat. She lives shallow scratches in her throat as she claws at her throat with numb hands.

Tears leaked from Lena’s eyes and with one final convulsion as her hands reached out inelegantly for Alex’s feet… she went still.

Lena was dead.

Alex stood still for a moment. Horrified and relieved in equal measure.

Alex surveyed the room one last time to ensure she had removed all evidence of her presence. With one last long gaze at Lena Luthor Alex stepped back.

“Goodbye Lena,” Alex whispered though a choked throat.

The nightmare of the future could never be. Alex had made sure of that, but at the cost of new nightmares. Lena’s horrified struggle would haunt her until the day she died, but it was a price she willingly paid to save the world. To save Kara.

The nightmare undreamt had morphed to something new and more personal but as Alex walked stealthily out of Lena’s penthouse, erasing her presence from all security feeds as she went, she felt more at peace than she had in over a year.

Alex just needed to be close by now when Kara heard the news. She had to protect Kara, she had to care for her in the face of this newest loss. One loss though…Alex had comforted her through thousands in the future. One was a small price to pay and a smaller nightmare than the nightmare of the future undreamt.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts? Comments? Kudos? Critique?


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